Preliminary results from Afghanistan's September 28 presidential election --- expected to be reported on October 19 - have been delayed, the country's Independent Election Commission (IEC) says.

IEC chief Hawa Alam Nuristani made the announcement at a news conference in Kabul, saying the delay would 'further ensure the transparency of the [electoral] process' and "restore the people's confidence in it."

'Unfortunately, because of some technical issues and for transparency, we could not announce the results based on the election timetable,' she said.

Election officials reported troubles from the beginning in collecting and transferring massive amounts of information to the main IEC computer server from biometric devices used to record voter fingerprints and pictures. A time-consuming exercise of identifying fraudulent votes was cited as another major factor for the slow data entry.

All of the previous elections in Afghanistan held since the Taliban government was forced out in 2001 have been marred by allegations of fraud, leading the IEC to use biometric devices for the first time.

The commission vowed to release the preliminary results as soon as possible but did not give a possible date.

Two senior IEC members had told VOA the results would likely be delayed a week.

The presidential election was beset by violence and accusations of fraud.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on October 15 said 85 people were killed and another 373 wounded in election violence during the period from June 8 to September 30.

On polling day alone, 28 civilians were killed and 249 injured. Children accounted for more than one-third of the victims.

Afghan security forces said that, despite the high casualty toll, the election day was a success because Taliban militants failed to pull off any large-scale attacks.